Nordic Storm
Day four of storm, and I have become so used to it that I barely brace for the gusts anymore. They blow around and through me in my…
September 2021
Realisation of Mortality
One day I am going to die. Sometimes I know this on an intellectual level, and other times, like on this transcontinental flight through the day and night…
November 2016
Whose (New Zea)land is This Anyway?
The ancient Maori story goes that a boy called Maui, half-man half-god, really wanted to go fishing, so he hid on board his older brothers’ canoe, call…
June 2016
Hope is a Feathered Thing
The Peace Camp 2016 in Israel-Palestine has come to an end. I am full to the brim with impressions, feelings and learnings that will take some time to…
May 2016
Jericho Has Not Fallen
During the Peace Camp 2016 in Israel/Palestine, I took a half-day trip to Jericho on a mission to experience this part of the Occupied Territories and to fin…
April 2016
Common Ground
I am lying on the sand and stone of the Judean desert, on top of a foam mattress. It’s too hot to have even the thinnest cover over…
April 2016
What Is Asked Of Me?
As I arrive on the first floor of the retreat centre, a renovated ex-monastery, there is a modern single door to my room on the right, and huge…
September 2015
Rubbish Revelations
There is something highly satisfying about collecting rubbish. Litter, trash, garbage, waste, refuse, debris. Stuff people drop on the ground that should go …
August 2015
Consecration
“I am under the earth. It’s dark. I can’t see anything.” Her voice is tentative, not quite scared, but the note of approaching discom…
July 2015
Shinto Spirit
30 floors up, the view over the Shinjuku district in Tokyo is breathtaking. I am perched in the skies, in a high-rise hotel room, contemplating these last fe…
April 2015
Hiroshima War & Peace
It is raining in Hiroshima. I am walking towards the Peace Park, which is at the hypocentre of where the atomic bomb was dropped over the city in…
April 2015
Malta Marathon and on and on
Ther e is a storm brewing and the sun has yet to rise. People are walking around, sparsely and a bit aimlessly, with what appear to be focussed…
February 2015
Megaliths of Malta
I walk among mystery in the warm February afternoon on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Giants? Phoenicians? Aliens? Who carved and arranged these gigantic…
February 2015
Scenes from the Desert
Let me paint a scene in your mind, with brush strokes broad enough for desert vastness and vagaries. In the centre of this scene there is a portaloo…
December 2014
Petra By Night
On a moon- and candlelit walk to Petra… Magic and mystery in the Jordanian night. Seven men spend up to three hours carefully placing the 2000 candle l…
December 2014
Floating in Jordan
The country of Jordan’s name comes from an old Aramaic phrase that means “floating river”. The river, also named the Jordan, may not be wid…
December 2014
Inner Spartan Gold
“You get more cool every time you visit!” My energetic, blonde nephews and niece are dangling over my shoulders, giggling their heads off with de…
August 2014
Ljubljana Love Between Lives
It is dark and almost completely quiet… In this haven of peace, two hearts are pounding loudly, and one of them is mine. The young athletic man stretch…
July 2014
Secret Signs in Slovenia
Sometimes I wonder what little signs I would send to myself from the World of Souls to guide me down the right track in this lifetime, if I…
July 2014
Portals of Faith
“I wish all churches could be like this…” runs through my mind as I walk through the gardens of an old hall, in the hedge-lined countryside…
July 2014
Titicaca: Ayni – Mita – Minka
Benedicto is 73 years old and his eyes are shining in the candlelight under the brim of his Peruvian hat. He has been entertaining me with stories of…
June 2014
Llamas & Other Misunderstandings
In 1532, a Spaniard arrived in Peru, and saw a curious animal that liked to spit and looked a bit like a big shaggy goat. He asked a…
June 2014
Cycles of Lives
It is pitch black, and the cold stone walls are closing in all around me. I use my hands to feel my way forward, to both sides and…
June 2014
Jungle Purge
Yesterday we walked 15km through jungle mud in knee-high wellies. Memories of difficult, unpleasant, painful times came up with every laboured step. It was l…
June 2014
Amazonian Wisdom
(in non-alphabetical order) Fig trees: These trees grow buttress roots to not fall over when they reach a certain height, as their roots only otherwis…
June 2014
Dusky Titti Monkey
“Dusky titti monkey!” The local rainforest guide signals to the boat captain to slow down and turn the boat around. I see tangled branches, brown…
June 2014
Earthquakes & Guinea Pigs
“There’s a big one coming…” says Luis, our tour guide. Chile and Mexico have both had substantial earthquakes in recent years, and Pe…
June 2014
Azorean Tail Tale
There is something fresh and full of potential in the Atlantic air of the Azores. I feel it blowing on my skin as soon as I step off…
April 2014
The Importance of Failure
One might say that I had been on a bit of a lucky streak. I had carried out months of successful past life regressions under hypnosis, with clients…
February 2014
Elemental Dawn
It is a new dawn in Iceland. The sun is cracking above the glacial white horizon, and the sky is flooded with a fury of pink and orange.…
January 2014
2.8 Hours Later
The group has just decided that the only way forward is to do our best zombie impersonation, and shuffle ahead. It’s surreal. We cannot go back, and wh…
October 2013
Squaring the Circle
I am sitting in a field in Wiltshire on a gloriously sunny day. My fingers are gently stroking the strands of wheat around me. Overhead, several small planes…
July 2013
Am I Spartan?
I am up to my chin in cold, dark, murky water, and the petite woman next to me is on the verge of a panic attack. She does…
June 2013
Life Purpose
Sitting in the spring sunshine of California, in the hills somewhere behind San Francisco, I wonder to myself: “Is this really real?” The boundar…
May 2013
Space, Time & Other Lives
If I can travel in the dimension of space, along ancient pilgrimage trails, up heavenly mountains, across scorched deserts, on sandy beaches, then surely I c…
February 2013
Zombieland
The skies are bleak. The sun barely lays claim to existence; the wind bites rabidly and relentlessly. In the unkempt thickets of skeletal trees and bramble, …
January 2013
No Finality
What I have learnt from Egypt is that there is nothing “final” about “final”. In a haggling situation, I would be asked: “What&…
December 2012
Chance Encounters
Sometimes I wonder… if I could have planned the grand traits of my life in advance from spirit world before I arrived in this earthly life, what signs…
December 2012
Pushing Through
Pushing through the wall was the theme of these last two days. A wall of intense heat, sweat, blisters, unrelenting rocky hillsides to climb and descend, riv…
November 2012
The Life of a Maasai Man
From my interactions with the Maasai, here is the fictitious story of a boy growing up in their culture, which, under different circumstances, could have bee…
November 2012
Cradle of Mankind
The story goes that Kenya is the cradle of mankind. This is the place that humanity took its first baby steps, and then went on, in long strides,…
November 2012
Hot Springs
I dreamt that bombs went off in my sleep last night. It turned out that a herd of cattle and goats has walked right past my tent around…
November 2012
On the Road
Today I am on the road from Nairobi to the wild plains of Kenya – from one world heritage site in Lamu to another in the Maasai Mara.…
November 2012
Voodoo and Viagra
Two elderly ladies in their late 70’s cautiously ring the bell outside a sex shop in Southampton and creep inside. Their eyes open wide at the sight of…
November 2012
Mending Hearts
Twalib Omar is 9 years old and one of my patient treasures. Today he brought me a painting that he made, which shows me mending someone’s broken heart!…
November 2012
How Bereavement Feels
Last week, a middle-aged man in Shela village passed away – suddenly, just after finishing his evening meal. One minute he was eating, and the next he …
November 2012
Lessons & Guides
Over the last couple of days, I have learnt quite a few things. The first is that a ceiling fan can be use to create a sort of…
November 2012
Same but Different
Can everything be the same but different at the same time? My body knows this Kenyan heat, this constant Equatorial sweat, the sound of mosquitoes swarming n…
November 2012
On Heroics & Martyrdom
I just took a walk through a summer rain storm. The large drops were delightful on my hot skin at first, and I slowed down to somehow drink…
July 2012
The Tiny Planet of Lamu Airport
The total inventory of this planet-island right now is: a miniature passenger plane which has a technical malfunction, a four-seater helicopter, two security…
July 2012
Getting Sick
I remember when I was a child and my whole family was sick with a viral infection that all the school kids were getting. My mum was somehow…
July 2012
Gratitude Takes Many Forms
Sometimes it’s a bag of fruit – mangoes, oranges, limes and bananas – brought with a shy smile to my clinic by a patient with a chronic ill…
July 2012
Heart Attack
Some things in life are just a question of time. Like a heart attack. My gratitude today goes out to Dr Gandhi at Medway Hospital where I completed…
July 2012
No Telepathy
Sometimes I am glad humanity has not reached the stage of effortless telepathy yet… Two days ago, I found myself doing cognitive-behavioural therapy (a…
June 2012
Wave of Love
A huge wave of LOVE landed at Shela Dispensary today – MANY THANKS for your generous donations from your medicine cupboards! With every item I carefull…
June 2012
Lessons from Children
My mobile phone rings in the hours of darkness, and I hear a voice saying that there is an emergency… and it involves a child. Please come quickly.…
June 2012
When it Rains, it Pours
When it rains, it pours! I sneakily hoped that the deluge that started in the middle of the night would keep patients in their houses today, but no…
June 2012
Gunk! Pus! Goo!
Gunk, pus, goo, slime, mucus, general yuck and disgust. All so strangely satisfying to squeeze out of the body! Some days have a certain theme to the patient…
June 2012
Open Heart
“Marcus, keep your heart open. It’s less painful than closing it.” That’s what the Universe sweetly and elegantly reminded me of toda…
June 2012
The Tough, the Smiling & the Grateful
Today was all about middle-aged ladies: one as tough as nails, another who confusingly smiles when feeling pain, and yet another who hides neither her pain n…
June 2012
Politics, Hustling & Handling Children
After the fast-moving, life-saving activities of the last week, today I have been feeling stuck in a political quagmire, slowly sinking into a swamp of local…
June 2012
Emergency Transport
There is something deeply poignant about taking a patient with a medical emergency to the hospital. Firstly, there is the moment where they come into my awar…
June 2012
David Whyte Responds
Those of you following my adventures last month may recall I was in Nepal, and I trekked to Tilicho Lake to recite David Whyte’s poem by the same…
June 2012
Floating Memories
What do you get if you take one 70 year old farmer, one sharp thorn scraping his leg and 30 days without antibiotics and proper wound care? Yep…
June 2012
Help!
The whole village must have heard a “muzungu daktari” (white doctor) has arrived. The queues at the Dispensary these last two mornings have been …
June 2012
School Days
I am utterly humbled by a class of Kenyan 13-year-olds who are learning English as a foreign language. They are in the final year of Primary School in…
June 2012
The Chief’s Daughter
So picture me for a moment, if you will, sitting in a local cafe in Lamu town, eating some fried beef and chips for dinner while keeping half…
June 2012
Love vs. Fear
Right now, I am feeling rather splendid… but I had to go via fear, loneliness and worry over the last two days to get here! My arrival in…
June 2012
Dusk to Dawn
From dusk in London to dawn in Kenya, and my feet touch African soil for the first time. I will go barefooted when I reach the sands of…
May 2012
Tibetan Craft
Today was full of curious and interesting experiences, from the early-morning flight from Jomsom to Pokhara right till the late-night folk dancing at a lakes…
May 2012
Yak Orchestra
And here is what the mirror on the wall said: “You’re bright red and peeling!” When we finally reached a wifi-enabled hotel in the small ai…
May 2012
Glorious Descent
I survived the mountains! We started at 5am, which was just as well because I only slept in fits and starts through the very chilly night where I…
May 2012
Tilicho Lake
I am at 4925m or so, in a bright yellow tent next to Tilicho Lake. Getting here involved an unbelievable effort today, trekking up endless dusty trails, nego…
May 2012
Mountain Gods
Relaxing at 4075m at Tilicho Peak Hotel in Sheree Kharka after the steady climb from Manang via Khangsar, I am in awe of the mountains. I can barely…
May 2012
Mountain Cave Lama
The walk to Manang was almost a stroll in comparison to the previous days’ trekking. But just to keep up my track record of one health problem per…
May 2012
Acute Mountain Sickness
Yesterday went from splendid to as far from splendid as one could possibly imagine. I woke up refreshed and got served a pancake for breakfast (very high up…
May 2012
Guides: Sherpa & Astral
Today was a tough one. I woke up rather sore all over from the exertions of the first day of trekking, and then I started getting a nauseous…
May 2012
24-hour Hot Shower
“24 hour hot shower” does not mean 24 hour hot shower in Nepal. Signs with those words are just meant to get trekkers to stop there, I have…
May 2012
Bussing Up the Mountain
I am trying to find a stronger descriptive word than “harrowing”, but nothing quite describes the second bus journey I took today. It all started…
May 2012
To Nepal & Heavens Above
01.05.2012 My 12,646th day alive – the same age at which Ozge passed on. It still feels incredible at times to consider that she could have died, but…
May 2012
On Silence & Vipassana
Over Easter in April 2012, I spent 10 days in silence at a Vipassana meditation retreat. I had the opportunity to learn a lot about myself – some…
April 2012
20 Lessons from the Camino de Santiago
I walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain, from León to Santiago, and then took the bus on to Finisterre, between February 23rd and March 8th 2012. I…
March 2012
The End of the World
I arrived in Santiago yesterday. After not really knowing what to do with myself as I stood in front of the cathedral, exhausted, I ended up getting my…
March 2012
Chorizo & Blisters
The last weeks of blisters, pain and long distances were no small effort, but the journey itself unfolded without any planning effort. It just became what it…
February 2012
Camino Angels
It feels like my Camino has already started. I went to Bluewater to buy some gear from the trekking shop, and after trying on lots of different bags,…
February 2012